Israel at 59 - Facing Unpleasant Facts in the Middle East By Steven Plaut

The world is now well into the post-Oslo. post-911 era, in which the
delusions and denials of reality that were the foundations of the "Middle
East peace process" are at last being acknowledged for what they were.
For those returning to the planet Earth from Fantasyland in the "Oslo"
parallel universe, it behooves them and us all to bear in mind some of the
unpleasant facts of life about the Middle East.

1. The Arab world has never come to terms with Israel's existence within
ANY set of borders whatsoever and is still seeking the annihilation of
Israel and its population.

2. ANY Palestinian state, regardless of who rules it, will produce
escalated violence, terror and warfare in the Middle East, and neither
stability nor peaceful relations. ANY Palestinian state will seek warfare
with Israel and not solutions to the economic and social problems of its
citizens.
3. The only reason Arafat and the PLO ever wanted control of the West Bank
and Gaza Strip was to use them as bases for attacks on Israel. This is the
only real use to which they will be put by any future Palestinian state.

4. There is no alternative that will stop the bloodshed and war in the
Middle East other than the adoption by Israel of an unambiguous policy of
R&D, that is, of Re-Occupation and Denazification of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. Every other alternative proposal for stabilization and
pacification is delusional.

5. Denazification of the West Bank and Gaza Strip must be based partly on
the programs of Denazification imposed on Germany and Japan by the Allies
after World War II, but in part must be different. Such Denazification
policies will have to stay in place for decades. There is no other way by
which Israel can prevent the daily massacre of its civilians by
Palestinian terrorists.

6. The bulk of Palestinians have lived outside Israeli "occupation" for
years, and their "liberation" from Israeli "occupation" only produced
Nazification, terrorism, mass murders, and violence. Their pacification
requires re-imposing of open-ended martial rule upon them by Israel.
7. The instability of the Middle East is not caused by Israeli occupation
of Palestinian lands but by PLO occupation of Israeli lands.
8. There was never in history an Arab Palestinian state. There is no
justification whatsoever for one now (other than perhaps in Jordan).

9. The Palestinians have no legitimate claim to the right to set up their
own state. It is doubtful whether they ever did have such a right, but -
even if they once did - they forfeited it thanks to decades of terrorism,
savagery, mass murders and barbarism.

10. Palestinians are Arabs. The Arabs already rule 21 states. There is no
reason why they should be entitled to a 22rd state, and creation of a 22rd
Arab state, "Palestine", in the West Bank and Gaza will escalate Middle
East violence and world terrorism.

11. The Palestinians are not and never were a "nation". They are not even
a tribe. They are a branch of Arabs with only minor and secondary cultural
differences that distinguish them from Syrians, Lebanese or Jordanians.

12. The Middle East conflict cannot be resolved through endless
exhibitions of niceness and restraint by Israel. Israeli niceness,
restraint, and goodwill gestures are interpreted by the Arab world as
weakness and as signs that the Jews, like Paul McCartney's Band, are on
the run.

13. The Palestinians are not "mistreated" by Israel, but ARE poorly
treated by the Palestinian Authority. The treatment of Arabs by Israel is
a thousand times better than the treatment of Arabs by Arab countries.
14. The only Arabs in the Middle East with any semblance of civil rights
are those who live under Israeli rule.

15. If the intifada "uprising" were in fact a product of oppression and
mistreatment of Arabs by a government, then Israel should be the only
country in the Middle East that does NOT have an intifada.

16. Oslo has radicalized and Sudetenized most Israeli Arabs, who now
identify with and openly support Arab parties and politicians who call
openly for terror violence against Jews and the destruction of Israel.

17. There exists no set of concessions by Israel that would result in the
Arab states coming to terms with Israel's existence.

18. There are no Arab democracies and no support for democracy among
significant minorities within the Arab world.

19. Israeli assassination of Palestinian terrorists is in fact a
substitute for retaliation in kind against the Palestinians for bombings
of Israeli children and other civilians. The alternative to such
assassinations is bombings of Palestinian civilians.

20. Israeli settlements are the "mine canaries" of the Arab world. There
is no reason why Jewish civilians should not be free to live in peace
within Arab countries truly seeking peace with Israel, just as Arabs live
at peace within Israel and within the United States. The attitude of the
Arab world in general and of the Palestinian Authority in particular
towards such "settlements" is indicative of their attitudes towards Israel
and Jews in general. If the Palestinians are NOT seeking peace with the
Jews, and indeed they are not, then the real problem is that Israel has
built too few settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

21. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that does NOT deal with
Islamist terror through wholesale massacres of the people in whose midst
the terrorists operate.

22. There is an inverse relationship between the material comfort of Arabs
living under Israeli rule and political moderation. The better off they
are in a material sense, the more violent and radical they are. More
generally, Arab radicalism and terror are positively correlated with
comfort and education and wealth. Bin Laden and his people are filthy
rich. There have been no undernourished Palestinian suicide bombers.
Many have been college students.

24. Israeli Arabs endorse terror and violence against Jews by large
majorities. They also support bin Laden and the Hizbollah.

25. There are no visible Palestinian public figures who oppose violence,
terror and Islamist fascism. There are no Palestinian "moderate" leaders,
only a few Palestinian fascists who speak English well and elegantly, like
Hanan Ashrawi.

26. There is not and never has been a Palestinian "peace movement" nor a
Syrian "peace movement".

27. Syria has no legitimate claim to the Golan Heights. Its claim to the
Golan is far less legitimate than German's claim to Alsace and Lorraine.

28. The PLO, and not just the Hamas, is itself very much a manifestation
of Islamist fascism and was founded by Islamist fundamentalists. Its
head, Abu Mazen, is no more "moderate" than the heads of the Hamas and
Islamic Jihad.

29. Asking Arafat to arrest the terrorists is a bit like asking Osama bin
Laden to arrest those responsible for the September 11 attacks on the US
or asking Hitler to take steps against those who invaded Poland. It is
all part of the Oslo era of mass delusion and make-pretend.

30. Peace cannot be achieved through pretending that war does not exist.

31. The Israeli Left is responsible for the bloodshed in Israel. The
Israeli Left rescued the PLO from oblivion in the early 1990s, armed it,
and allowed it to become entrenched in the suburbs of Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem. The Israeli Left is as wacky as is the pro-Taliban, pro-Saddam
campus Left in the United States. It is today as anti-Israel as the US
far Left is anti-American.

32. Ehud Olmert and his crew have yet to detach themselves from the pipe
dreams and denials of reality imposed on the country by the Israeli Left,
those that produced the Oslo debacle. They continue to insist they favor
creation of a Palestinian state.

33. The only peaceful terrorist is a dead terrorist.

34. Israel cannot restore the credibility of its military prowess through
"signaling," but rather only through using that prowess and putting its
military might to actual use.

*There are not 22 Arab states – which is another fiction pushed by the Arabs as they already count a second “independent” Palestinian Arab state. There are only 21 states. Adding a second “Palestinian” state would make the number 22.

Much thanks to Dr. Steve Carol for the War of Words who adds, "avoid being propagandists for the Arab/Muslim cause through the use of their terminology, which has been “accepted” by much of the world’s media, and even leftist, liberals in the US and Israel. We do not call it the “Arab Gulf” nor use other Arab applied terms e.g. “Arabistan” for Khuzistan. Why accept the Arab terminology."

Trans-Jordan illegally invaded Judea-Samaria in 1948 and as a result of its aggression occupied that region. It then unilaterally annexed the area on April 4, 1950, which was recognized by only two nations, the United Kingdom and Pakistan.

The Arab League, their Muslim supporters, anti-Israel elements and anti-Semites, deliberately sought to rob the region of its correct political and geographic name. They had to fabricate a brand new name for they could find no other name for the territory. Mislabeling was their technique of disinformation and de-legitimization. The “West Bank” was the name concocted by King Abdullah I of Trans-Jordan and his British advisors, allowing the king to annex land outside of
his artificially “created” kingdom.

He then changed the name of his
kingdom twice, first to “The Hashemite Kingdom of the Jordan” but that
was quickly rejected since it gave the appearance of a kingdom only
along the banks of the Jordan River. The name then was changed again to
the “Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.” The term “West Bank” eradicates all
Jewish historical connection to the area. It is a sad commentary that
many in the West, including the political left, many Israel’s
supporters, some Israelis themselves, as well as the naïve and
self-delusional who think the name does not matter, have acquiesced to
this unilateral change of names and use it in common parlance. But the
name does matter. Similarly, the Arabs insist on calling the Persian
Gulf, the “Arabian Gulf” and Iran’s Khuzistan province, “Arabistan.”
Why then doesn’t much of the world call the Persian Gulf “Arabian?” Is
there a double standard at work here?

Besides the political origins of the phrase, one must wonder from a
geographical perspective how wide a river bank can be? A river bank may
be a few feet or so, but not some 30 miles deep from the river! Just
because a new name is invented, does not mean the world should adopt it
in common usage. Does an aggressor get rewarded with the additional
bonus of a geographic name change designed to eradicate the historic
name of a region? In March 1939, Germany renamed the present-day Czech
Republic, “Böhmen und Mähren” after seizing that land by aggressive
act. During World War II, Germany invaded, occupied and annexed part of
Russia calling it “Ostland.” Do we use those terms today? Do we call
Mexico the “South Bank” because it borders on the Rio Grande? Should we
rename Serbia, the “West Bank” (of Europe) because it lies to the west
of the Danube River and re-designate Poland the “East Bank” due to its
location east of the Oder-Neisse Rivers?

Long before most of media capitulated to protests over Danish cartoons
and statements by the Pope, the media and many in the world, out of
fear and intellectual laziness agreed to obfuscate the truth by
surrendering the use of the name Judea-Samaria and adopt the term “West
Bank.”

The Roman emperor Hadrian in 135 CE after suppressing the
Jewish revolt led by Bar Kochba, attempted to eradicate Jewish
nationhood, statehood and any connection to the Land of Israel. He
renamed the territory “Palestina” - after the Philistines, the ancient
adversaries of the Israelites. Seeking to erase the Jewish connection
to Jerusalem the Romans razed the city and named the city built atop
the rubble, “Aelia Capitolina.” Nevertheless as late as the 4th
century, the Christian author, Epiphanius, referred to “Palestina, that
is Judea.” Despite this “Palestina” is still Israel, Aelia Capitolina
is still Jerusalem and the West Bank is still Judea-Samaria.

Dr. Steve Carol
Prof. of History (retired)
Official Historian “Middle East Radio Forum” www.middleeastradioforum.org
Scottsdale, Arizona

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Israel at 59 - Facing Unpleasant Facts in the Middle East By Steven Plaut

The world is now well into the post-Oslo. post-911 era, in which the
delusions and denials of reality that were the foundations of the "Middle
East peace process" are at last being acknowledged for what they were.
For those returning to the planet Earth from Fantasyland in the "Oslo"
parallel universe, it behooves them and us all to bear in mind some of the
unpleasant facts of life about the Middle East.

1. The Arab world has never come to terms with Israel's existence within
ANY set of borders whatsoever and is still seeking the annihilation of
Israel and its population.

2. ANY Palestinian state, regardless of who rules it, will produce
escalated violence, terror and warfare in the Middle East, and neither
stability nor peaceful relations. ANY Palestinian state will seek warfare
with Israel and not solutions to the economic and social problems of its
citizens.
3. The only reason Arafat and the PLO ever wanted control of the West Bank
and Gaza Strip was to use them as bases for attacks on Israel. This is the
only real use to which they will be put by any future Palestinian state.

4. There is no alternative that will stop the bloodshed and war in the
Middle East other than the adoption by Israel of an unambiguous policy of
R&D, that is, of Re-Occupation and Denazification of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip. Every other alternative proposal for stabilization and
pacification is delusional.

5. Denazification of the West Bank and Gaza Strip must be based partly on
the programs of Denazification imposed on Germany and Japan by the Allies
after World War II, but in part must be different. Such Denazification
policies will have to stay in place for decades. There is no other way by
which Israel can prevent the daily massacre of its civilians by
Palestinian terrorists.

6. The bulk of Palestinians have lived outside Israeli "occupation" for
years, and their "liberation" from Israeli "occupation" only produced
Nazification, terrorism, mass murders, and violence. Their pacification
requires re-imposing of open-ended martial rule upon them by Israel.
7. The instability of the Middle East is not caused by Israeli occupation
of Palestinian lands but by PLO occupation of Israeli lands.
8. There was never in history an Arab Palestinian state. There is no
justification whatsoever for one now (other than perhaps in Jordan).

9. The Palestinians have no legitimate claim to the right to set up their
own state. It is doubtful whether they ever did have such a right, but -
even if they once did - they forfeited it thanks to decades of terrorism,
savagery, mass murders and barbarism.

10. Palestinians are Arabs. The Arabs already rule 21 states. There is no
reason why they should be entitled to a 22rd state, and creation of a 22rd
Arab state, "Palestine", in the West Bank and Gaza will escalate Middle
East violence and world terrorism.

11. The Palestinians are not and never were a "nation". They are not even
a tribe. They are a branch of Arabs with only minor and secondary cultural
differences that distinguish them from Syrians, Lebanese or Jordanians.

12. The Middle East conflict cannot be resolved through endless
exhibitions of niceness and restraint by Israel. Israeli niceness,
restraint, and goodwill gestures are interpreted by the Arab world as
weakness and as signs that the Jews, like Paul McCartney's Band, are on
the run.

13. The Palestinians are not "mistreated" by Israel, but ARE poorly
treated by the Palestinian Authority. The treatment of Arabs by Israel is
a thousand times better than the treatment of Arabs by Arab countries.
14. The only Arabs in the Middle East with any semblance of civil rights
are those who live under Israeli rule.

15. If the intifada "uprising" were in fact a product of oppression and
mistreatment of Arabs by a government, then Israel should be the only
country in the Middle East that does NOT have an intifada.

16. Oslo has radicalized and Sudetenized most Israeli Arabs, who now
identify with and openly support Arab parties and politicians who call
openly for terror violence against Jews and the destruction of Israel.

17. There exists no set of concessions by Israel that would result in the
Arab states coming to terms with Israel's existence.

18. There are no Arab democracies and no support for democracy among
significant minorities within the Arab world.

19. Israeli assassination of Palestinian terrorists is in fact a
substitute for retaliation in kind against the Palestinians for bombings
of Israeli children and other civilians. The alternative to such
assassinations is bombings of Palestinian civilians.

20. Israeli settlements are the "mine canaries" of the Arab world. There
is no reason why Jewish civilians should not be free to live in peace
within Arab countries truly seeking peace with Israel, just as Arabs live
at peace within Israel and within the United States. The attitude of the
Arab world in general and of the Palestinian Authority in particular
towards such "settlements" is indicative of their attitudes towards Israel
and Jews in general. If the Palestinians are NOT seeking peace with the
Jews, and indeed they are not, then the real problem is that Israel has
built too few settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

21. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that does NOT deal with
Islamist terror through wholesale massacres of the people in whose midst
the terrorists operate.

22. There is an inverse relationship between the material comfort of Arabs
living under Israeli rule and political moderation. The better off they
are in a material sense, the more violent and radical they are. More
generally, Arab radicalism and terror are positively correlated with
comfort and education and wealth. Bin Laden and his people are filthy
rich. There have been no undernourished Palestinian suicide bombers.
Many have been college students.

24. Israeli Arabs endorse terror and violence against Jews by large
majorities. They also support bin Laden and the Hizbollah.

25. There are no visible Palestinian public figures who oppose violence,
terror and Islamist fascism. There are no Palestinian "moderate" leaders,
only a few Palestinian fascists who speak English well and elegantly, like
Hanan Ashrawi.

26. There is not and never has been a Palestinian "peace movement" nor a
Syrian "peace movement".

27. Syria has no legitimate claim to the Golan Heights. Its claim to the
Golan is far less legitimate than German's claim to Alsace and Lorraine.

28. The PLO, and not just the Hamas, is itself very much a manifestation
of Islamist fascism and was founded by Islamist fundamentalists. Its
head, Abu Mazen, is no more "moderate" than the heads of the Hamas and
Islamic Jihad.

29. Asking Arafat to arrest the terrorists is a bit like asking Osama bin
Laden to arrest those responsible for the September 11 attacks on the US
or asking Hitler to take steps against those who invaded Poland. It is
all part of the Oslo era of mass delusion and make-pretend.

30. Peace cannot be achieved through pretending that war does not exist.

31. The Israeli Left is responsible for the bloodshed in Israel. The
Israeli Left rescued the PLO from oblivion in the early 1990s, armed it,
and allowed it to become entrenched in the suburbs of Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem. The Israeli Left is as wacky as is the pro-Taliban, pro-Saddam
campus Left in the United States. It is today as anti-Israel as the US
far Left is anti-American.

32. Ehud Olmert and his crew have yet to detach themselves from the pipe
dreams and denials of reality imposed on the country by the Israeli Left,
those that produced the Oslo debacle. They continue to insist they favor
creation of a Palestinian state.

33. The only peaceful terrorist is a dead terrorist.

34. Israel cannot restore the credibility of its military prowess through
"signaling," but rather only through using that prowess and putting its
military might to actual use.

*There are not 22 Arab states – which is another fiction pushed by the Arabs as they already count a second “independent” Palestinian Arab state. There are only 21 states. Adding a second “Palestinian” state would make the number 22.

Much thanks to Dr. Steve Carol for the War of Words who adds, "avoid being propagandists for the Arab/Muslim cause through the use of their terminology, which has been “accepted” by much of the world’s media, and even leftist, liberals in the US and Israel. We do not call it the “Arab Gulf” nor use other Arab applied terms e.g. “Arabistan” for Khuzistan. Why accept the Arab terminology."

Trans-Jordan illegally invaded Judea-Samaria in 1948 and as a result of its aggression occupied that region. It then unilaterally annexed the area on April 4, 1950, which was recognized by only two nations, the United Kingdom and Pakistan.

The Arab League, their Muslim supporters, anti-Israel elements and anti-Semites, deliberately sought to rob the region of its correct political and geographic name. They had to fabricate a brand new name for they could find no other name for the territory. Mislabeling was their technique of disinformation and de-legitimization. The “West Bank” was the name concocted by King Abdullah I of Trans-Jordan and his British advisors, allowing the king to annex land outside of
his artificially “created” kingdom.